On March 25, 2013, I, along with my husband Garland and my sister Shirley attended the Black Farmers Conference in Greenville, Mississippi for a week.  Little did I know that my life would change and never be the same when I returned to Temple Hills, Maryland.  My sister Mary called me on the night I returned and informed me that her grandson who was my great nephew, Omari Joel Buchanan born on December 31, 2012, had been diagnosed with Zellweger syndrome and was given six months to live.

My heart was broken to the point that I cried for Jasmine, his mom; Omar, his father; Mary and Denise, his grandmothers; Willie and David his grandfathers and my entire family.  Not being a mother, I could not feel Jasmine’s pain, but the pain that I was experiencing at the moment was so deep that I could not imagine how she was supposed to survive this.  It would have been easy that night for me to give up, get mad at God, and feel that there was no hope or just breakdown completely. But, I had to realize that would not change the situation we were in.  I think we all came to that conclusion. After getting myself together and sharing this news with my husband, I went online and began to research this illness.  There was very little research to be found.  What a tough pill to swallow. I had never heard of such an illness and other than my faith and belief in God, I was totally devastated.

I called Jasmine and asked for permission to start an international prayer line for Omari.  She said yes. I prayed and asked God to direct me on how to go about doing this because I truly needed an answer.  I then called my sister Shirley and asked her to assist me in sending out requests for prayers.  I was depending on the scripture “The Effectual Feverent Prayer of a Righteous Man Availeth Much” to manifest itself in this situation. It was all I had at the moment and I had to at least try what I was feeling in my spirit.   I texted, emailed, called and mailed a letter to everyone I knew. I contacted my pastor and started a prayer line at my church and churches throughout the Metropolitan Washington DC area.   I contacted all my friends and family and ask them to call their pastor and start a prayer line at their church. I wanted to put this on Facebook, but Jasmine and Omar were not ready for that to happen. I understood fully. This at the moment was a nightmare for all of us.

I told Shirley that I had seen this man on the Oprah Winfrey show that was a healer and I thought we need to find out how to contact him.  Oprah visited him in Brazil and broadcast live a healing session that was awesome. His name was “John of God” and he lived in Brazil.  Shirley Googled him, found the information and contacted him via email.  We had to do something.  We could not just sit and believe that this was the end for Omari.  The Bible teaches us “that every sickness is not until death.” We went for it believing that this was an effort to do something. Actually we did not even expect a response.  We got a response in less than two hours. I remembered that Shirley and I were so happy.

This is a copy of the communication sent to John of God;   In a message dated 3/30/2013 12:20:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, malone1917@verizon.net writes:  “We need healing power for this young baby, the doctor giving him 6mos to a year to live, he is 3mos old now, we are believers and we know this is not true and he will live, but we want him to live without this syndrome.  Please advise ASAP, we are in need.   The response we received–please email me a recent photo of him, along with his full name, date of birth, address of residence and a brief summary of his healing needs, all in one email, and I’ll get it to john of god for distance healing right away.  blessings to you all – josie  www.johnofgod-brazil.net .

 I sent the information requested to his assistant Josie.  In the meantime, Omari‘s grandmother Mary requested the following to our family: “Let eat fruit, vegetables/salad, water (No coffee, tea, juice, bread, sweets, starches) From Sunrise to Sunset; (Wednesday, April 2, 2013) of this week through Friday.  Next week starting Monday for thirty days from Sunrise to Sunset.  If you have health issues you cannot do this.  During this Fast, we will read scriptures and prayed.  The Devil is a liar OMARI is already healed we are just waiting on the Manifestation.  Be Blessed,” Mary Malone-Ferguson

I do not know if everybody did, but, Mary and I did.  Much prayer was going up and we were expecting a blessing to come down.   By this time prayers were being sent from everywhere in the United States and Abroad.  As a matter of fact, my computer shut down because I received so many responses that first day I had to delete them. My computer was not powerful enough to handle them. Shirley had contacted every prayer line on the internet that she could find and responses were coming from everywhere.  Shirley and I spoke regularly during this time looking for someone else to call on to pray. We were desperate.

My family spent many nights in the hospitals with Omari trying to provide support to Jasmine and Omar. To attend meetings with doctors and hear that there were nothing that could be done and to be told that Omari was just going to die made me pray more and request prayer even more.  I ended up spending countless hours searching prayer lines and churches.  I contacted channel five fox news (no answer); Oprah Winfrey (no answer); Joyce Myer (no answer); Kenneth Copeland who sent me a donation letter.  I even went on the White House email and contacted President Obama (no answer); TD Jakes (no answer); Joel Osteen (no answer); Joyce Myer (no answer) and many more that I cannot even recall.

I then contacted John of God again.  I do not know why I kept communicating with Joisie, but for some reason I did. Maybe, because she was at least responding to me. The response is below:  In a message dated 3/30/2013 9:17:04 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ggallen47@verizon.net: Doctors say that there is no cure and his life expectancy is 6 months to a year.  He is currently three months.  We are willing to travel to Brazil if needed.  Josie responded:

I will get the request to john of god within a day.  see how things go over the next month with this distance healing.  if in a month you feel more is required, resend me everything and I’ll make an additional request.  it is probably not advisable to travel with this little one, given his current condition.  but you yourself could come if you wish, to pray for him here at the Casa (john of god’s healing center in brazil), where there is so much energy to support your prayers.  let me know if you wish to explore that option and I’ll email you some info on the upcoming trips.  blessings – Josie

So I decided to wait for a month to end, which would be April 30, 2013, to see what would happen. However, my sister and I continued to request prayer from every source we could find.   It was around the beginning of May 2013 (a little over a month), I am not sure of the date.  My sister Shirley called me to say that a person in South Carolina had a friend who had two children with Zellweger.  He wanted to know if she would like to have her contact information to give to my niece JASMINE.  I must have shouted! And praise God all day that day when we found out her son was fifteen years old and the other one was thirty-five. Lord! Lord! Lord!

Now by no means am I saying that “John of God” or any person made the difference here, I am just telling it the way it occurred. I strongly believe that all the prayers were working together. I just had to wait on the Lord for the answer.  All The Praise and Glory go to God. I believe that God had it in His hand.

A connection was made and Jasmine was in touch with Mrs. Joyce Wulf and her son Matthew who was 15 years old.  She shared with Jasmine about the supplement DHA and assisted her in getting it.  I believe in my heart and soul this was God answering our prayer.  I thought, “What is the chance of this happening?”  We had never heard of Matthews, North Carolina and were overjoyed for this connection.  I thought it was also interesting that her son’s name was Matthew.

I felt that we must go to Matthew, NC and became instrumental in getting us there to meet the Wulf family. Jasmine, her mother, and I traveled to Matthew, NC to visit the Wulf’s.  As I entered their home, I felt this was all about a blessing from God.  We were received and so much love and concern were shared.  I had never met a woman like Mrs. Wulf and her testimony was very, very uplifting. Her family was just wonderful! The family who made the connection came from South Carolina to join us.  All I could say was “The Effectual Feverent Prayer of a Righteous Man Availeth Much.”

I thank God for my family because we were unified in this effort.  Mary, Willie, Lekitta, Garland, Junior, Jasmine, Omar, Denise, David, Kia, Quay, Iche, Sade, cousins and extended families were joining us in prayer.  We spent many nights supporting Jasmine and Omar at the hospitals.

Well, on December 31, 2013, Omari turned one year old.  On March 14, 2014, God placed it on my heart to do an all-night prayer (24 hours) at my church.  I started out by telling everyone that I was there to ask God to bless Omari and forego any new blessings for me.  To this day I give my blessings to Omari. However, God keeps blessing me and Omari and I am so thankful. God answered our prayer “let him live.”  Now we are just waiting and praying for his development and looking forward to celebrating his 2^nd birthday December 31, 2014. Remember, “The Effectual Feverent Prayer of a Righteous Man Availeth Much”

Gwendolyn Allen

Great Aunt and Godmother

September 8, 2014